Seasoning

Through a small miracle of science, you can add vinegar flavor to dry foods like popcorn and kale chips, in addition to all the pickles and salads. A few summers ago, trying desperately to make some green beans less watery and waxy and boring, I tried to make a knockoff version of something I had …

The two major brands of Kosher salt – Diamond Crystal and Morton, are very different products. Cooking magazine editors are no strangers to the complaints department. Frequently, readers make liberal substitutions or skip over steps in recipes. “I cut half the sugar, replaced the white flour with rye, and only used egg whites. This …

Why are plastic canisters of Goya adobo seasoning so ubiquitous in Puerto Rican kitchens? Because the spice blend goes well with pretty much everything. When my parents got divorced, my dad didn’t know how to cook, but he knew how to shake a giant jar of Goya Adobo. He’d pour shocking amounts onto pork chops …

The ingredient would have otherwise been too cheap to grace noble tables. Peasant food in action in Annibale Carracci’s The Beaneater, c. 1585. PUBLIC DOMAIN FOR THE 16TH-CENTURY ITALIAN NOBLE, garlic posed a unique, culinary dilemma. To demonstrate status, a person of taste and means served food prepared with the finest, rarest spices, such as …

Our taste system is conditioned so foods higher in energy taste better. We all love delicious foods, even if we know they may not be good for us. Foods high in energy – specifically sweet, salty and fatty foods – tend to taste the best. This is likely because our ancestors needed to seek out …

Occasionally, a rogue squid beak gets lodged in a sperm whale’s intestines. To protect its soft innards against the sharp irritant, the animal produces a waxy secretion called ambergris (“gray amber”), much like an oyster forming a pearl. Excreted ambergris is turned into a rock-like mass by saltwater and sunshine. By the time the weather-beaten …

If you drink mango juice, you could be forgiven for thinking mango is the main ingredient, but that’s often not true. Food substitutions to enhance flavour are surprisingly common. In a world where modern chemistry has allowed almost anything to be flavoured or coloured like almost anything else, you can stumble across some surprising substitutions. …

To better understand the distant past, it can help to taste and smell it. 3,712 Some frescoes from Pompeii feature the panis quadratus. This one is now at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. CARLO RASO/FLICKR/PUBLIC DOMAIN TODAY THE BREAD IS CRISPED black as charcoal, and run through with cracks. A baker had kneaded and …

Dry white wine is popular with chefs because it adds notes of acidity and brightness to foods and cuts through fattiness. Good cooking is about adding layers of flavor and complexity to a dish. While any acid will add acidity and brightness, wine has a complexity that simple acids like lemon juice lack. Different wines …

As a retired chef (13 good restaurants over 3 global sites)..with no illusions, I have an ‘essential’ view. It’s easy. Save ALL cut-offs from vegetables except cucumber, celery leaves (bitter), potato peels (rot) , or anything you don’t want to ‘enhance’ you flavor with….say, cinnamon. Save ALL bones, no matter what carcass – they will …

The right amount of salt will elevate food’s flavour. Good old table salt is perfect for cooking. As any cook will tell you, salt is much more than just a dining table afterthought. “Salt is vital for building layers of flavour,” says Shelagh Ryan, co-owner of London’s Lantana Cafes. “I like to add it at …

Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s trick to making his famous Red Rooster fried chicken is to simply brine it before cooking it. This easy step of soaking it in cold salt water adds a ton of flavor and makes the meat perfectly tender. Learn how to do it here.

youtube.com Chef Ludo Lefebvre’s trick to making perfect french fries at his Los Angeles restaurant Petit Trois is to soak them in salt water before frying them. This seasons them from the inside out and removes excess starch for a crispier, more flavorful fry. See the full video here.

In an interview with Uproxx, chef Fabio Viviani of DineAmic Group said, “For any seafood dish, add a little bit of clam sauce.” The savory flavor will amp up any seafood dish without overpowering it, and your guests won’t even know it’s there!

Chef David Chang of Momofuku cuts the intense saltiness of miso by folding it into softened butter. The mixture allows him to impart the miso flavor without adding a ton of salt. See how to do it here.

6 William Meppem Be careful not to overseason slow-cooked dishes. What happens if I add too much salt to my cooking? M. Kennedy If you mean that you are consistently cooking and eating very salty food then you will probably die, most likely from cardiovascular disease. See your doctor. If you have accidently overseasoned a dish, …

Seriously though, chefs use way more salt than the average home cook and theycontinue to add salt throughout the recipe, tasting it as they go. Here are a few tip videos that I like that help explain some crucial salting techniques: Pre-Salting Chicken – how salting your chicken before doing anything else makes it that …

Cooks use vinegar to make pickles, deglaze pans, marinate meats, and add tang to vinaigrettes, sauces, and even desserts. Vinegars are made by adding a bacteria called Acetobacter aceti to diluted wine, ale, or fermented fruits or grains. This creates acetic acid, which gives the liquid a sour flavor. Unopened, most vinegars will last for …

If you are talking about biftek hache or just plain patties of ground meat, chances are they’re made the “French” way with suet wrapping, more fat than you’ll find in a burger, sometimes eggs or finely diced onions and garlic, and cooked in broth before being finished on the grill. I don’t know either of …